Mechanical annunciator.



L. C. SWAIN.

MECHANICAL ANNUNCIATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.20,1913.

Patented May 25, 1915.

Suva/whoa Lewd) 6'. lwaz la THE NORRIS PETERS C0 F'HOTO-LITHO., WASHINGTON D. C

LEWIS C. SWAIN, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

MECHANICAL ANNUNCIATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 25, 1915.

Application filed March 20, 1913. Serial No. 755,617.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, Lnwrs C. SWAIN, citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanical Annunciators, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to annunciators and has as its principal object to provide an annunciator operated by clockwork which shall be eflicient and reliable.

A second object is to so reduce the cost of efficient annunciators that they may be commercially available for announcing recess or work hours in schools, factories and the like.

A third object is to provide an automatic annunciator in which the time of announcing or ringing can be changed as desired.

A final object resides in the particular arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is a side elevational view of my improved device as mounted in conjunction with an ordinary clock, parts being broken away and the dial, hour and minute hands being removed. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevation of my improved mechanism, the front frame of the clock being removed. Fig. 3 is an end elevation taken from the left of Fig. 1 and showing the upper part of the same.

In the separate views the same part is designated by the same reference character.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 1 designates my complete mechanism which is provided with a front frame 2 and a back frame 3. Pivoted between frames 2 and 3 is a gear wheel 1 on the shaft of which is an ordinary winding spring. A is a dog spring. The wheel 4 drives a train of gears similar to the ordinary clockwork gears shown at 5, 6, 7 and 8. The shaft 9 of the gear 8 is provided with a plate 10 which acts as a fan when the gear train is in mo tion so as to regulate its speed.

The gear 5, and consequently the train of which it is a part, is normally held stationary because of a plate 11 which is mounted rigidly with the same shaft as the gear 6, and is provided with a notch 1 a which is normally occupied by the bent end 12 of an arm 12 which arm 12 is rigid with and extends from a pivoted shaft 13. It will be understood that the wheel 5 is provided with a series of pins 1 1 which project from one side thereof so that they contact with a bell lever 15 mounted in the plate 2 as shown at 16. A spring 17 is provided which normally holds the lower end of the lever 15 in the position shown in Fig. 1 but when the catch 12 is withdrawn from the notch 11 the wheel 5 is permitted to revolve and the pin 1% thereupon. carries the lower end of the lever 15 into contact with the spring arm 18. As will be apparent from Fig. 1, throwing the contact lever 15 into contact with 18 closes an electric circuit through the bell 19, a battery 20 and the frame 2.

1 provide two means for withdrawing the catch 12" from the notch 11 one of which is manual and the other automatic. The man ual means comprises a segmental member 21 pivoted to the member 2 which may be thrown into the position shown in Fig. 2 so as to lift the arm 22 which is rigid with the shaft 13 and thus lift the arm 12 and release the catch 12 from the notch 11 The automatic means for operating the alarm comprises a disk 13 which is provided with one or more slots such as 2d near its outer end and I provide a plurality of dogs such as 25 which may be fastened in any de sired position along the slots 2% and project out beyond the edge of the disk. It will be understood that my alarm is designed to be operated in conjunction with an ordinary clock, the majority of the clock mechanism not being shown but that 1 have shown an hour hand shaft at 26 within which is a minute hand shaft 27 and that the disk 23 is rigid with the hour hand shaft 26. As the disk 23 revolves in a clockwise direction as shown in Fig. 1 the dogs 25 regulate or control the ringing of the alarm at such time as desired, the intervals being regulated by adjusting the dogs along the slots 24:. To transmit the motion from the dogs 25 to the cap 12" I provide a train of mechanism comprising a lever 28 pivoted as shown in Fig. 2 at 29. At one end the lever 28 is provided with a wing 30 which projects forwardly into the path of the dogs 25 and at the same end as the wing 80, the lever 28 is provided with a depending arm 31 which is provided with a hooked end 32 which passes beneath and is adapted to raise the arm 33 when the lever 28 is operated by the dogs 25. The arm 33 is ri idly connected to a pivoted shaft 34 and as the arm 33 is raised the shaft 34: is turned and consequently a second arm 35 also rigid with 34 is raised and makes contact with the hooked end 36 of an arm 36 which arm 36 is rigid with the shaft 13 previously mentioned.

It will be observed that the outer end of the arm 35 is bent backwardly as shown at Fig. 2 so as to contact with a pin or stop 37 which normally sustains theweight of the arms 33 and 35.

It will be evident that a device of the character which I have previously described will generally be used during the daylight hours only and consequently unless means were provided to prevent such action, it would ring twice during the twenty four hours since thehour shaft 26 revolves once every twelve hours. To avoid the unnecessary ringing during the night hours I provide a gear 39 which is attached to the shaft 26 behind the disk 23 and which meshes with a gear iO pivoted between the frames 2 and 3. The gear 4:0 is pivotally connected to a link e1 at one end and said link is pivoted at its other end to a lever 1-2 which is pivoted to the frame 3 as shown as 43.

The upper end of the lever 42 is provided with an arm i-it shown in Fig. 3, whichpio jects rearwardly into alinement with the fan 10. Gears 39 and 40 are so designed that gear 40 revolves only once in 2% hours or at half the speed of 39 and the lever 42 is so proportioned that during one half of the revolution of the gear 40, or in other words, during twelve hours of the day, the disk will be turned suiiiciently by the links 41 so that the arm will. project into the path of movement of the plate 10 and consequently prevent the rotation of wheel 5 and the consequent operation of the alarm even when head 12 is released by the dogs 25.

It will be understood that the disk 23 is mounted immediately behind the dial and hands of the clock and presuming that the clock has been constructed with the foregoing mechanism installed therewith, or that it has otherwise been attached, the dial and hands of the clock are removed for the purpose of adjusting the dogs 16 to such positions as will cause them to operate at the desired times during the day. This having been done, the dial is replaced, and the clock will from then on automatically ring the hell or bells on the circuit at such times as the dogs 25 are set for.

It will of course be apparent that any number of bells may be coupled to the one circuit and that all will ring at the same time, thus enabling one mechanism to ring several separate alarms at the same time in different portions of a building.

The wheel 6 is so geared to wheel 5 that it makes one revolution while 5 turns the distance between two adjacent pins 1%. Consequently the mechanism gives one continuous ring and then stops.

It will be understood that while the foregoing mechanism embodied the preferred form ofmy invention, that various modifications thereof may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, and that parts of myinvention may be used without using the whole.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is In an alarm apparatus in combination, mechanism for sounding an alarm, a stop normally interrupting the operation of said mechanism, an hour shaft, a disk rigidly mounted on said hour shaft provided with projecting dogs, means operated by said dogs for withdrawing said stop from its normal position at predetermined intervals, a gear carried by said hour wheel, a gear meshing with said first mentioned gear, and revolving at half the speed of said first mentioned gear, and a second stop operated from said second mentioned gear wheel and adapted to prevent the operation of said mechanism during one half the revolution of said second mentioned gear wheel irrespective of the position of said first mentioned stop.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LEWIS C. SlVAIN.

Witnesses A. D. Cannnvn'r, FRANK H. CARTER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

